The Ancients - The Parthenon: Wonder of Athens

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

It is the most famous monument of ancient Greece. Its remains standing tall above modern Athens today, more than 2,000 years old. The Parthenon. A temple, treasury, the residence of a powerful general after Alexander the Great’s death…and his courtesans, a church, a mosque, a gunpowder store, a tourist site. It’s safe to say that the Parthenon has had a pretty fascinating story over the past two and a half millennia. Not to mention the amazing art and architecture of the building that continues to awe people down to the present day. In this episode of our sister podcast Echoes of History, our very own Tristan Hughes joins Matt Lewis to find out more.Edited by Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight, the senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.The Ancients is recording our first LIVE SHOW at the London Podcast Festival on Thursday 5th September 2024! Book your tickets now to be in the audience and ask Tristan and his guest your burning questions. Tickets on sale HERE https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/words/the-ancients/Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original TV documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off your first 3 months using code ‘ANCIENTS’. https://historyhit.com/subscriptionYou can take part in our listener survey here.

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancients ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. Hi, Tristan here, and I have an exciting announcement. The Ancients has been invited to open the London Podcast Festival. We will be recording our very first live show on Thursday 5th September at 7pm at King's Place,

and being the first live show where we want it to be extra special, so I've invited a friend of the podcast, Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, to join me on stage where we will be diving into the captivating story of the Tower of Babel, from its first mention in the Book of Genesis, to the real-life great ancient Babylonian structure that it was based on. Of course, the ancients is nothing without you, so we want you to be there in the audience taking part and asking us your burning questions. Tickets for the festival always sell fast, so book yourself a seat now at www.kingsplace.co.uk forward slash what's on, or click the link in the show notes of this episode.

I really hope to see you there. A temple, a treasury, the residence of a powerful general after Alexander the Great's death, of this episode. I really hope to see you there. over the past two and a half millennia, not to mention the amazing art and architecture of the building that continues to awe people down to the present day. It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and I'm doing this intro from Northern Scotland. I am on holiday. The scenery is beautiful. The sun is starting to poke out from amongst the clouds. I can see mountains in the distance. There are sheep nearby, a small river, a burn near my feet. It is a relaxing time, but not for the ancients because the podcast, well, it never sleeps. And today, well, we have

something slightly different for you because rather than me being the interviewer, today I am the interviewee. This is an episode from our sister history hit podcast, Echoes of History, hosted by my good friend Matt Lewis, which explores historical locations from the incredibly well-known Assassin's Creed video game franchise. And recently, the Echoes team, they invited me on to give an overview about that most famous of ancient Greek monuments, the Parthenon. This was a really fun crossover episode with Echoes of History,

and I'm really happy we can now share it with you. Welcome to Echoes of History, the place to explore the rich stories from the past that bring the world of Assassin's Creed to life. I'm Matt Lewis. You join us in the middle of our journey through the rugged heartlands and glittering seas of ancient Greece, the setting for Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Today though, our focus is on a place, an enduring symbol of ancient Greek artistry and architecture, arguably the most recognisable monument the Greeks have left behind, the Parthenon. Built atop the Acropolis in Athens during the 5th century BC, its construction was completed just before the start of the Peloponnesian War. completed just before the start of the Peloponnesian War. Today, its now-ruined marble pillars are visited daily by hordes of bustling tourists and printed on postcards the world over.

But what did the Parthenon look like when it was newly erected? And what was it like to walk around Athens whilst it was weathering the storms of war. Picture the scene. It's the middle of the day. The Mediterranean sun beats down mercilessly from on high. The heat is unrelenting. Sweat drips down your back as you climb a dry and dusty road that winds its way up a jagged hill. You're supposed to be approaching Athens, but the city is not yet in view. The telltale signs are there, though. You pass merchants from faraway lands,

leading packhorses laden with a wealth of exotic goods. The scars of burnt-out fires pockmark the sides of the road. Trails of people snake up and down the road, going about their business. Perhaps at the top, you'll catch a glimpse of Greece's golden city. After a climb that seems to take an age, you near the summit, but the first thing you see is not the city nor its walls, but a temple. Uniform marble capped by a sea of burnt red tiles. It sits atop a pedestal of rock that has been forged by the forces of Mother Nature and stands like a beacon of Athenian power and prestige towering over all that surrounds.

This is the Parthenon, the crown of the Acropolis and the rest of Athens lies in its shadow. As you approach the city gates you notice the walls are draped in deep blue banners fluttering lightly in the breeze. All are adorned with the emblems of Athens, an owl, the companion of Athena. Its eyes are wide, head turned outwards, guarding the city's approaches from potential Spartan onslaught. You pass through the gate and the air and atmosphere change as you're met with the sounds of a city preparing for bloodshed. The rhythmic clang and flying sparks of blacksmith's hammers forging spears and shields. Dozens of hoplites, the city's heavily armed foot soldiers,

pass close by in a small huddle, clad in bronze chestplates that dazzle in the sun, carrying their famous blue-tufted helmets under their arms. Yet despite the looming fog of war, the natural rhythms of the city remained. Market sellers flogged their wares in the agora, anything from the cheapest of trinkets to the finest jewellery. Children scream and giggle as they play with one another in the street. Temples welcome worshippers and audiences flock to the theatres. As you make your way up towards the Acropolis, the majesty of the Parthenon is brought into even sharper focus.

Details that were invisible from a distant hilltop are now unmistakable and enthralling. Statues of the gods stand erect along the walls, their ivory eyes eerily vacant. Priests paste back and forth between the columns, burning incense as a sweet-smelling offering to Mount Olympus. But most spectacular are the friezes and reliefs carved in gleaming marble, showcasing the expertise of ancient Greek craftsmanship. The fractious conflicts between the gods and man, the strained muscles of charging horses, the struggles of heroes against mythical beasts, all are preserved in stone and they will last for eternity.

So that's how you encounter the Parthenon and Athens in the visually stunning Assassin's Creed Odyssey, but what other stories are woven into the fabric of this iconic building? Who built it and for what purpose? To answer this and more, I'm joined by History Hit's very own Tristan Hughes, host of the Ancients podcast. Together, we'll uncover the real history behind one of ancient Greece's most ambitious architectural projects. We'll unpack why the Parthenon was dedicated to Athena, explore the wider pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses, and discover how its construction was shaped

by the shadowy spiderweb of Athenian politics. Join us as we traverse the contours of time to hear the real echoes of history resonating from Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Hello Tristan, welcome to Echoes of History. I was trying to rack my brains before and I'm not sure you and I have ever actually done a podcast together before. So this is a moment for me. It is a moment for me as well. We're like two ships in the night, aren't we? We host our separate podcasts and we could never really quite find the opportunity to work side by side. But now we do have the opportunity to talk about the Parthenon today. So welcome. You have finally been brought into the light. That is ancient history rather than medieval history. So welcome.

I thought you were going to say make a Dark Ages comment then. I was going to have to get upset about it. Not just yet. I don't want to upset you right at the start. So we're here today to talk about the Parthenon, which is a building that is in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. It's a building you can climb and you can run through and you can explore. So just to start us off with a real basic knowledge, because I don't know anything about ancient history, so I'm here to learn. What is the Parthenon and where is it? The Parthenon is sometimes heralded as the eighth wonder of the world. I mean, I'm not really a big fan of those labels because it's sometimes attributed to the Colosseum. And let's be honest, they're much more than seven wonders of the

ancient world. And it is certainly a wonder. It's this beautiful ancient Greek temple constructed in the 5th century BC in Athens. It's normally the poster building when someone is talking about ancient Greece, classical Athensthens and it is in regards to its architecture and its art one of the most stunning surviving examples of classical art and architecture from the ancient greek i believe the ancient mediterranean world so it is absolutely stunning its location as mentioned earlier it is is in Athens, now the capital of Greece. And back in the 5th century BC, it was one of the most prominent city-states, arguably the most prominent city-state in the Greek world. It is placed atop a large rocky outcrop known as the Acropolis that became basically the religious heart

of classical Athens. And much of Athens is flat. So to have this great rocky outcrop in the center, it was very much a very visual location for anyone approaching Athens, whether that be from sea or from land. So yes, it has become the symbol of classical art and architecture, I think you could very much argue, and one of the most memorable, one of the most recognisable ancient pieces of architecture surviving from classical Greece. And the classical Greece I'm talking about is the 5th century BC, but also the 4th

century BC too. Yeah, and incredible to think that something from that period that people would have sailed towards Athens in those days and looked at, you can still see and visit today. It's still there and still iconic. I'm going to say it's iconic. I also nearly jumped in in your Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World comment to say that surely you're the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World, Tristan, with the Ancients podcast. Wow. Flattery. with the Ancients podcast. Wow, flattery. Before we get a little bit further into the Parthenon,

the idea that this was a temple, this was a religious site, leads me into my complete lack of knowledge, really, of the Greek gods. So is the Parthenon dedicated to one particular god? Well, the function of the Parthenon is actually a tricky topic, and some have even argued that it wasn't a temple in the slightest because there's no associated priesthood. However, one of our ancient sources who visited the Parthenon, this basically, think of him as an ancient travel writer, a man called Pausanias. When he visits it, he mentions it as a temple, so it almost certainly did have a religious function. But it also had a function as a treasury, which we'll almost certainly get into as well. But yes, it is named Parthenon and after Athena Parthenos, so one of the most recognisable goddesses, well, deities of the ancient Greek pantheon of gods. And yes, so let's kind of go

into the pantheon of gods. So ancient Greeks, polytheistic, they worshipped a number of different gods. The most recognisable of them would arguably be the 12 or 13 Olympian deities that I'll mention time and time again. For instance, Zeus, king of the gods. You've got his wife Hera. Then you've got Athena, Dionysus, god of wine. He's always a fun one. Hermes, messenger of the gods. Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Aphrodite, and quite a few others. And then you get the gods in the underworld, like Hades and Persephone, Demeter too, Artemis. Those are perhaps the biggest deities that you think of of ancient Greece. But then they also had a lot of deities that are less mentioned in the literature. The prime example being Hestia, goddess of the hearth. She was basically everywhere.

The prime example being Hestia, goddess of the hearth. She was basically household. And then there are many other gods and goddesses as well that are brought into the pantheon. Helios, god of the sun, or Selene, goddess of the moon. And then you get lots of mythical creatures associated with the myths of certain gods and goddesses, and then demigods like Heracles too. So long story short, from what I've just said there, the Greek pantheon of gods and goddesses is a whole range of different deities ruling over different parts of the world, sometimes overlapping on certain parts of it. And they're very complicated figures. They're certainly not good guys, I think is the best way. All of these gods and goddesses have flaws that are very much mentioned and you certainly i think one of the overriding themes yet from all the myths of the

greek gods and goddesses especially from the series we've recently done is that you don't want to mess with one you don't want to get on the wrong side of a gods and goddess or because the vengeance is pretty horrific in many cases they sound quite human in that sense that you know they're fine while everybody's praising them and being very nice to them. But if you get on their wrong side, prepare to reap the whirlwind. Well, exactly. Yes. You want to appease the gods. I mean, the one that immediately goes to mind is the story of a hunter who sees one of the virgin goddesses alongside Athena,

another one called Artemis, goddess of the hunt, sees her naked while she's bathing and kind of is a peeping Tom, looks at her and then he's bathing and kind of is a peeping tom looks at her and then he's caught whilst he's doing that he was hunting with his hunting dogs and then he is transformed by artemis into a stag and then he is ripped apart by his hunting dogs so yeah that's just one there are many many myths and all that but yes pantheon of gods and goddesses a huge range lots of amazing myths and mythology surrounding them hence why they are still so popular down to the present day and if anyone wants to know more about them the ancients podcast

has done this whole fascinating long series of gods and goddesses where you can go and find out loads more about these individual gods and goddesses i was gonna say people but they're not people just to position athena then she sits in that kind of top tier of the Greek gods and goddesses? Yeah, she's in that 12 and 13 Olympian deities that I mentioned earlier. She's a fascinating one. I remember doing an interview on Athena with Rachel Cusser just over a year ago, and that was absolutely eye-opening. But I think she is most famously known as the goddess of wisdom, but she's also a virgin goddess, and she's also the goddess of war, goddess of skilled craft, so weaving. Talking to Rachel about this, the thing that she says, this kind of the underlying theme that can weave them all of you, pardon the pun, all of them

together. She embodies strategic intelligence, whether, you know, strategy in war, wisdom, but weaving as well. So strategic thinking in all of those things. And she becomes very closely aligned with Athens, which I'm sure we'll explain. But first of all, she has a fascinating birth story. One of the most bizarre birth stories of them all, Matt. She is the daughter of Zeus and Zeus' first wife, who isn't Hera, it's a Titan.

And Titans were the rulers of the heavens before the Olympian gods. And she's a woman called Metis. And Zeus, who has just taken over control from his father, Kronos, finds out that Metis is pregnant and he fears that their child is going to overthrow him like he did his father and his father did his grandfather.

There's a bit of a trend there in Greek mythology. And so what he does, he swallows Metis. So he swallows his pregnant wife and thinks he's done that's the problem solved apparently metis is still advising him from his belly by the time that it comes around for metis to give birth zeus has a thundering headache and he brings along hephaestus god of the forge another of those 12 13 olympians and what feistus does is he splits open zeus's head to find out what it is and out springs athena fully formed with all the objects that become associated

with her she has this kind of called an aegis it's like this breastplate which normally has the face of the gorgon medusa on front she has a shield a spear a helmet and she's sometimes also very much closely associated with an owl because the owl was seen as a very wise animal by the ancient Greeks. So yes, that's the story of Athena's birth. We can talk about a few others associated with Athens, but she does become a very important goddess and also a goddess you don't want to cross,

not just for the Athenians, but the ancient Greek world. I guess just to end on the gods and goddesses then who's your favorite goodness um well none of them are my favorite really they all have pretty horrific stories associated with them i mean demeter i i really did like the interview i do with natalie haynes on demeter at the end of last year because sometimes demeter is a bit overlooked as, you know, I dare I say soft or just goddess of the harvest, but there's a real determination. She's acting as a mother, particularly when her daughter Persephone is stolen by Hades, god of the underworld. And Demeter's quest to get her daughter back is a really extraordinary one. And I recommend listening to that interview with Natalie Haynes on that. So having done this series, I do find Demeter's story very, very interesting now.

But there's just something about Hermes for me. I think Hermes is fascinating. You know, the messenger god, but he's quite cheeky. You know, when he's a baby, he steals a herd of cattle. I believe it's from Apollo. So he's quite a crafty little kid. Pretty disturbing story about how he creates the first liar by killing a tortoise but we'll overlook that people can correct me if it's not

a liar but there are some really interesting stories with Hermes so actually I probably actually would say Hermes is my favorite and so you mentioned if we get back to the the Parthenon you mentioned that it's built on the Acropolis. Why is that spot chosen for this building? I think to do this, we'll go back to the beginning of the 5th century BC. So the story of the Parthenon really is the late 5th century BC when it's built. But the origins of the Parthenon, you can go back to one of the big events

of classical Greek history, which is the Persian Wars. And I believe Thermopylae is shown at the beginning of the Assassin's Creed Odyssey. And of course, Battle of Thermopylae is shown at the beginning of the assassin's creed odyssey and of course battle thermopylae is part of the the persian wars so you get battles like marathon thermopylae salamis platea mycale and artemisium and so on and so forth but what happens during the persian wars it's 480 bc so the athenians in 490 bc one of their their greatest pride is moments is when he defeats the persian invasion force led by King Darius I at the Battle of Marathon.

And this is not very far away from Athens. Of course, Marathon, you then get later the whole story of the run of Pheidippides. And then you get the marathon in the Olympics today, loose origins in the Battle of Marathon. But that's a story for another day. However, the second Persian invasion of Greece, this is even bigger, and this is by the Persian king Xerxes. And Xerxes, he marches a massive land force and an accompanying navy. They cross what is today kind of the Dardanelles and the land force marches all through northern Greece, ancient Macedonia, defeats the Spartans at the Battle of

Thermopylae. And then what happens is, I mean, there is the story of the wooden wall. And the oracle tells the Athenians to have faith in their wooden wall. And many Athenians, like Themistocles, who was the famous commander who would defeat the Persians, realized that the wooden wall was the Athenian navy. However, a few people believed that the wooden wall referred to them building a wooden wall on the Acropolis, which was still an important religious place for the Athenians at the beginning of the 5th century. So it had temples there already. A pre-Parthenon as well, if we can call it that, on the area that the Parthenon will be built on. Sadly, for the people who thought it was the wooden wall on land, they're not so fortunate because the Persians arrive in force at Athens and they burn the Acropolis to the ground, including all the temples, the architecture on top of the Acropolis.

And Athens is burned by Xerxes. The Athenians do ultimately beat this force, a combined force, the Battle of Salamis, this famous naval battle, but the city of Athens and the Acropolis was torched. his naval battle, but the city of Athens and the Yocopolis was torched. And when the Persians are finally beaten the following year at Plataea, one story is that there is an oath that is taken, the oath of Plataea, which deems that the ruins of those buildings burned and destroyed by the Persians would not be rebuilt, and that they would be there almost like a lasting memory to make sure that something like that never happened again. So that would naturally include the ruins, like the old Parthenon, on the Acropolis of Athens. What then happens over the next few decades, once the Persian threat has been crushed in Greece,

is that you have the forming of something called the Delian League, which will evolve into the Athenian Empire. Now, what happens there is you see Athens rising to the fore right at the start. So following the defeat of the Persians, there is a league of city-states, including Sparta and Athens and Corinth and many others, that unite in this desire to liberate Greek cities that have been conquered by the Persians and then kind of defeat the Persian threat because they don't know whether the Persians will come back or not. So there is very much this idea of keeping the fight going and this league will keep fighting. Sparta leaves that alliance very quickly and Athens becomes the dominant force and they form this league, the Delian League, after the island of delos which is the center of it and over the next few decades that league goes from being voluntary where they're all kind of giving money into the

treasury they're giving ships they're contributing to this combined force with athens at its head into athens becoming basically the de facto leader of it, being the most powerful, forbidding powers and Greek city-states across the Greek world, particularly the Aegean, to leave. And over time, the Athenians then take direct control of the money. They also, that oath of Plataea is conveniently discarded around 450 BC. Some argue that that oath was never a thing, and that actually it was just due to money issues that they didn't clear the ruins of the Acropolis. But by 450 BC, the Athenians are in charge of this powerful Delian League, which is by then very much becoming the Athenian Empire. A lot of debate about as to when it becomes the Athenian Empire, which I'm not going

to go into. But it all results that by around like 450 BC, the Athenians have a lot of money. They have the treasury, which we'll probably explore a bit more of, of the Delian League. And then they decide, okay, we're going to get rid of the ruins on the Acropolis.

And we're going to build these beautiful new buildings, unlike anything the Greek world has ever seen. Absolutely spectacular, splendorous buildings to really promote the power and magnificence, almost the revival of Athens following the sack of the Acropolis by the Persians. And that will kickstart this massive building program called the Periclean Building Program, which we'll get to, no doubt, on the Acropolis. Fascinating. So it almost goes, if there was ever this oath that they were going to leave things as they were when they were burnt by the Persians, that's almost going through a period of reflecting on that and moving into a period of, OK, now we're going to sweep away, we're going to move forward and we're going to project our magnificence out into the Greek world. So we're done with feeling sorry for ourselves

that we got bashed by the Persians and now we're going to make something that looks spectacular. Yes, I mean, look, but once again, as with many things with the story of the Parthenon and the background, for instance, when this Deani becomes an Athenian empire, there was a lot of debate around it.

And some would argue that, you know, the Oath of Plataea was just an excuse for saying that they didn't have the money to build the stuff up at that time. But the other point of view was that, you know, the ruins were to make people remember, to show the barbarous nature, the barbarity of the Persians, that they would do something like this. How disrespectful the Persians had been to the gods.

But yes, and then ultimately they decide, actually actually we're not going to do this anymore the acropolis we're going to adorn with these beautiful monuments they say to project the power of athens by the mid 5th century bc of course something else that is sometimes suggested is the reason why they had this change of mindset around 450 bc is there is a supposed treaty, a treaty with Persia, the Treaty of Kallias, so this peace treaty. So then they decide that this oath isn't valid anymore because they finally had peace with the Persians. But then again, some even debate whether that was a thing in itself. But what we do say is that by the early 440s BC, you do start to see a massive building program beginning again on the Acropolis. Yeah, interesting.

Why is it called the Parthenon? Why is that its name? What does that mean? Well, you know, initially I thought, oh, this is quite a straightforward answer. And if I'm incorrect on this, someone can absolutely let me know because my main area is Alexander the Great

and the Successors. I've done work on the Parthenon in the past and I've interviewed some fantastic professors on it. So it was really fun to be able to invite on this one and to kind of give an overview of this temple again. But when reading up on this, it was interesting. So the Parthenon, initially you think, oh, it's because of the great statue

of Athena Parthenos within, which we'll probably get to. And that almost certainly is a likely reason why it's called the Parthenon. This beautiful statue of this part of Athena I think we can say because you see with many of the gods and goddesses they have these things called epithets which is kind of like a word like what they're associated with named after and various parts of the god or goddess so Athena is a good example so you have Athena Polyas Athena of city, who's also very big in Athens and on the Acropolis. There's also Athena Promacos, which I think is basically Athena towards war or forward

in war kind of thing. So hunting at that. And then there's another fascinating epithet, which I love is Athena the Owl-Eyed, once again, association with owls and wisdom. And then there is Athena Parthenos, Athena the maiden or Athena the virgin. And that's pointing towards Athena as one of those three virgin goddesses in the Greek pantheon alongside Artemis, which we've already mentioned, and Hestia, goddess of the hearth. So yes, you think that the Parthenon is named after the statue, that great statue of Athena Parthenos that is created within, and that is very likely. What is interesting though, and I feel I i should mention is that when you look at mentions of the parthenon in ancient literature uh for instance plutarch and i think pausanias as well they say in the greek path then known no and now what i mean by that in the ancient

greek in the o at the end non uh it's it's an ormiga, going back to my A-level Greek now from many, many years back. So hopefully Mr. Bolfin, Mr. Weaker and the like will be proud of me. But it is the plural. So it literally translates as of the virgins or of the maidens, which has led some to suggest that actually was this temple? Was this building? Was it at one stage the home of maidens who maybe were weaving sacred cloth or sacred garments for athena it's a theory and it's unclear but at least i wanted to mention it because it is interesting the grammar when you do actually look in detail at the word parthenon in the ancient sources and if anyone knows more about that, please, please let me know. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. What do we know about who constructed it? Do we have any sense of who is in charge of Athens at this time? Who is driving this revival in the buildings?

Well, yes, we do. Well, we get one figure who's really associated as the man who kind of kick starts this whole building program. And in fact, his name is very much associated with it. The Periclean building program. This figure of Pericles, who was a leading Athenian statesman in the mid-5th century BC, right at the forefront of Athenian democratic politics, in the case of Athenian democracy, very different to our democracy. But hey, that is once again another topic for another day. But he's a prominent statesman for several decades, and he's a big proponent of the Athenian empire and a big driver in the Athenian empire. So by 450 BC Pericles is a leading figure and I think he's one of the main influential voices in one of these big actions that's seen as a defining moment in this

transformation from that Delian League, that alliance of Greek city-states originally against the Persians, into the Athenian empire when he moves that league's treasury from the, albeit quite neutral, island of Delos in the Aegean, to Athens. And that treasury will ultimately be placed within the Parthenon. So he's a big proponent of that. And then, when they've got hold of the money in Athens, and this, I think it can be said is one of the biggest examples of embezzlement in ancient history is that he uses the funds from the Delian League to fund the building of this massive building program in Athens designed to very much beautify and promote the power and stature of Athens. And one of the buildings

central to that on the Acropolis is the Parthenon. So Pericles, he's the driving force behind the building, not just to the Parthenon, but many other buildings using funds from this supposedly Delian League. It's evidently the Athenian Empire by this time. And I'll say again, one of the biggest cases of embezzlement in ancient greek history incredible to think you could look at the parthenon now and think that is an example of organized crime in the fifth century bc well it's quite interesting that because like you do get i think it's in plutarch who mentions that some people were opposed to this and plutarch is writing much later he's a greek historian and famous for his parallel lives um big very well-known figures of ancient greek

and roman history and kind of pairing them together and biographies of them like alexander the great julius caesar pyrrhus sartorius and so on and so forth i think he mentions that one case because he does fleetingly talk about the parthenon including two of the architects or three of the architects well two architects and one sculptor the architects are people called ictinos and caliquities and the sculptor is a man called fideas who we'll probably get back to but during that he also mentions how there was some displeasure with the use of these funds to kind of and i think it's like prettifying athens like a hall is sometimes how that how plutarch is paraphrased but that was kind of the line of attack you know we are using all these funds basically just to beautify Athens. And do we have a sense? So obviously in the

medieval world, I deal with lots of castles. People always want to know how did people build castles in a time before machinery and all of that sort of stuff. So if we go back another 1500,000 years, how are people building something like the Parthenon in ancient Greece? Clearly very well, because it still stands today. But do we have any sense of the kind of building technologies and materials that they're using to achieve that? The Athenians were meticulous record keepers. So it's quite interesting that in their bureaucracy, we have an idea when the building of the Parthenon starts, which is around 447 BC, from these records. And also we have early mentions of

the materials that are gathered for it. What is amazing about the Parthenon is that it's built entirely out of marble. There have been older temples built partly of marble, but never entirely of marble. Even the roof tiles are made of marble, supposedly, for the Parthenon. So it is built entirely of marble, and not just that, but the best marble that the Athenians knew of, because Athens had a great source of marble very close on the Attic Peninsula, which is where Athens is located, Attica,

just a bit to the south. Two of the great natural resources that the Athenians and their area, they're blessed with, is marble from Mount Pentelikon and silver from the Laurian Mines. So Laurian Mines might get that pronunciation wrong there. So my apologies.

And the silver mines are also very important in the growing, the enriching of Athens at this time. But the marble, this fine marble is quarried out of Mount Pentelikon. And that's mentioned in the records. And then brought up to the Acropolis, maybe on ramps. And obviously, they got wheeled transport. So brought up into the Parthenon. Remember, this takes more than a decade to build. But what's quite interesting in regards to the building techniques, what is also mentioned is a lot of wood being brought to the Parthenon. So that would probably hint at,

I mean, it's been suggested scaffolding, which would make sense when you're erecting these columns and ultimately the pediments and so on and so forth. Yes, they would have had some sorts of machinery like cranes, iron tools, and very, very good architects. We know that from some of the architectural details of the Parthenon are absolutely stunning. And one of the key reasons as to why the Parthenon of all ancient Greek temples is regarded as the most beautiful or amongst the most beautiful. But I couldn't give you the absolute details of how every part of it was built. But you do get at least a bit of a sense of some of those key building materials with those records, like the mentioning of wood at the beginning. Do we have an idea when it's finished of what the Parthenon would have looked

like at its peak, you know, when it's newly built, when it's being opened? Do we have descriptions of precisely what it looked like or can it be reconstructed from what survives today? We have fleeting mentions of it, what it looks like when it was built from the 5th century BC, and those largely come from, and when I mean fleeting, I mean very, very fleeting. So Aristophanes, the famous comedic playwright, at the end of the 5th century, in a couple of his plays,

for instance, his Knights and Lysistrata, both of those mention either the Parthenon or the statue of Athena Parthenos within. The Knights refers to the big hands, the big ivory hands of the Athena Parthenos statue. We'll get back to those materials, no doubt. And we do hear little eyewitness accounts of it. I think there's a man called Heraclades of crete who visits in the third century bc and he talks about like the sumptuous temple of athena stands out and is well worth a look it is called the parthenon and is on the hill above the theater and the theater i think

it's the dionysiac theater but it's where those performances were taking place and another key building of the periclean building program and Heraclades talks about how it makes an amazing impression on visitors but yes we do either from reconstructions or mentions of what visitors saw of it throughout history not just in ancient history and also with certain parts of it that didn't survive we don't really get many records of apart from fleeting mentions let's say the statue of Athena Parthenos for whom we have an accounts by pausanias a few centuries later this travel writer but they're also kind of copies of the statue which have been used to get more idea of the details of that statue yes we have a pretty good idea of its design

would you like me to go through it i think that'd be really helpful yeah i mean you know players in the game can go and explore this temple i think it'd be really nice to understand hopefully how accurate it is when they're walking through it and you know what those parts of the buildings were for when you run through them okay well let's do that so i think the first thing say i remember talking to dr maven mccue about this from the university of birmingham basically saying how the parthenon is ancient g Greek temple, but it had been turned up to 11, because it's built completely out of marble. And it has those hallmarks of ancient Greek temples.

But I think the first thing for me to point out, if we look at the exterior first off, let's say we're staring at the outside of the Parthenon, at the top of the Acropolis. The first thing for me to highlight is a particular architectural style of Greek temples, which was very prominent in the preceding century, in the 6th century BC, so the Archaic period. And this was known as the Doric order, so Doric temple styles. And great examples of that survive, for instance, one of my favourites is in southern Italy, a place called Paestum, ancient Greek Poseidonia. And there are a few ancient Greek temples there, which are very much this Doric style. And the Parthenon replicates it, even though it's built when, I think, the Doric order

had, I wouldn't say it's fallen out of fashion, but it's seen as quite an old style by them, which might hint that the people who built the Parthenon wanted it to look older than it actually was. What you notice, first of all, with the Parthenon is this large colonnade and it is a large colonnade. Each of these columns is a Doric column so they're these large fluted columns not much other decoration on them not all completely made of marble. Eight along the width of each end and then 17 along the length of either side of the colonnade. So I think that's 46 columns around the outside, the exterior. And what is interesting with these columns is you

won't really be able to see with the naked eye because it's such a small adjustment, but it shows the real capabilities of these architects, is that they bulge slightly in the middle. It's a thing called entasis. And this is an optical illusion because if they were completely straight and also they bend inwards slightly as well very slightly slightly inwards if they were completely straight and you looked at the parthenon from afar let's say you're approaching athens or something the columns would not look straight if they were straight it's really confusing don't get me into the details with it. However, if you do that slight illusion whereby make it bulge slightly in the middle,

make it lean slightly inwards. And I think on the end columns, either end are also slightly larger. Those little tweaks, tiny, tiny tweaks, ensure that when someone sees it from afar, the columns look completely straight. I do remember hearing something about there being an optical illusion in the way that they're built to make them look kind of straight from the right kind of distance. I wasn't sure if I'd made that

up, so I didn't want to ask that question. So I'm quite glad you brought that up. It's absolutely right. It's absolutely right. The columns are Doric columns. And then above the Doric columns, you have this beautiful sculpture, almost kind of strip cartoon-like sculpture. You see different scenes, mythical scenes around the lengths and widths so each side shows a different kind of mythological scene and they're so they're like strip cartoons because you see episodes of that scene in each kind of squarish bit of sculpture well squarish um area of the temple face and it shows a particular character to fill up that sculpted area particular sculptures would have probably been painted and we know that they may have had bronze armor on as

well and divided them up you have these three vertical lines between each of these little kind of snippets and they're called triglyphs so you get the meta piece which are these sculptures in these little square episodic parts of the parthenon. And then you get triglyphs, these three vertical lines, this stylistic design dividing them up, and they go all the way around. And that's very iconic of Doric temples too. And what kind of stories do they tell us? Can you give us an example of one of the images

that we can see there? They're all mythological scenes, and I think they're very much their heart showing Athenian victory over the Persians. Because another reason the Parthenon is built, supposedly, is to celebrate Athens, you know, reviving from the Persians and their ultimate victory against the Persians. So on one side, you have the Trojan War. So you think Achilles and Hector, Agamemnon, Menelaus, so Greeks versus Trojans. And the Trojans here very much seem as Persians, I guess.

Then you have something called a Centauromachy which is showing two mythological creatures centaurs and lapiths the centaurs have been invited to a wedding of the lapiths and the centaurs have a bit too much to drink and they start trying to seize the lapith women and start fighting and brawling and you see the lapiths resisting and fighting against them and the women fighting too then the next one you have a titanomaki the fight of the titans so the olympian gods versus the titans kind of once again that the battle of the heavens and the final one if i remember correctly is a amazonomaki or amazonmaki which is a battle with the amazons greeks fighting amazons so those are the four different mythological scenes represented in

these metopes uh was it the strip cartoons like on each side each of the four sides within that kind of doric exterior is you get ionic elements which are more kind of the parthenon mixes these two architectural orders together an ionic order is defined by these different styles of columns which i don't think you see on the parthenon But rather than having those metopes and triglyphs that I mentioned earlier, instead, it has a continuous freeze all around it. And what you have further in on the Parthenon is you have this continuous freeze. And part of that you can see in the British Museum, and a significant part you can also see at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. And there's a debate about what it shows, but I believe it does show the Panathenaic procession, this important procession that ended up on the Acropolis and was once every four years, this great festival to Athena.

Going on from that, in the interior of the Parthenon, there were two different rooms, but the main room housed this beautiful statue 12 meters tall of athena parthenos and it we don't have that surviving which we'll get to in a moment but pausanias describes part of it and we can understand more of it from replicas copies of it from roman times and it shows athena standing upright with her classic objects like the helmet and aegis breast plate spear shield there's a depiction of a snake which is believed to be a legendary early king of athens who was born from the ground and was adopted by athena there's a big story about that and athena hephaestus and ejaculation which maybe we should

talk about another time we probably don't have enough time but that's associated with athens and there was a big pool of water in front to keep the ivory okay. So that ivory and gold statue was there, beautiful statue adorned with decoration and different scenes. I think there's Greeks fighting Amazons. There's a depiction of Pandora, the first woman as well. Could talk much more about that, but I know we don't have time. The last thing I will say about the decoration is the two pediments right on top. Now, the pediments of the triangular bit right on top of the Parthenon. They both show main stories of Athena. One of them shows a main story of Athena and Athens. One side shows the birth of Athena, which I've already

mentioned, how exploding from the head of Zeus. The other one shows the mythical story of how Athena becomes the patron goddess or the mythical story of how Athena becomes the patron goddess, or the patron deity of Athens, which is a competition with Poseidon, god of the sea. And this kind of displays probably of ancient Athenian democracy, where Athena and Poseidon on the Acropolis, they show what they can offer to the Athenians. Poseidon offers them water, hits the ground of this staff and water springs out, however, it's salt water. So the Athenians aren't that happy about that. And then Athena gives them olives. So olives gives you shelter, olive trees, shelter from the sun, but also it's a commodity,

olive oil, and they choose Athena. So that myth is also shown on the other end. It's interesting that the Persians don't directly make it into there. Is it almost like an effort to say the Persians weren't even the greatest people we've defeated? We've defeated all of these people as well, almost ignoring the Persians. I don't know about that, because I don't think they'd, I think you just want to say that they defeated all these, like the gods and goddesses, because they're not fighting the titans. I think, like, these

different peoples, these foreign peoples, like the Amazons, like the Trojans, maybe the centaurs as well. I think, first of all, they would all be very recognizable myths. Now, you've got to remember with these metopes that they are more than 12 meters above the ground. So you don't want any writing, you just want to show the sculpture, but people to immediately recognize what is being shown from the sculpture. I think the other thing

to show is that like many temples, because they're associated with deities show mythological scenes the interesting thing with the python is that there's one scene which is likely not mythological which is the continuous freeze which is a bit further in which is a very much a not doric element is more of an ionic order element which is more of the time in athens which you might get to, which might show the Panathenaic procession, this big procession of Athens in the 5th century BC. But I think it is more to show, to align with other classical Greek temples, let's say the Temple of Caesar at Olympia, which show mythological scenes. And some of these

mythical races, like the Amazons, like the Trojans, are in this case being represented as the foreigner, like the Persians were. And the barbarian, basically. Yeah, it's the victory of civilization over the barbarians. Well, at least what they thought. Some would argue that the Persians actually, well, the Greeks borrowed a lot from the Persians, so it's not that straightforward. But that's another discussion. What do we know about the kind of people who used it so if this is a temple but it's also a treasury do we have a sense of the kind of people who were milling around there all day was it a place of business place of worship

a bit of both place of worship absolutely this is still like the religious heart of athens because you have other temples that are ultimately built like the eric theon which houses the very important small statue of athena polyas the olive statue, which is also where this great procession ended. So you would still imagine priests and priestesses being in this area of Athens. And we do hear of particular priestesses like Lysimache, who may well be an influence for the main protagonist in one of Aristophanes' plays, Lysistrata, in which women take control of the Acropolis in a sex strike because they want the Athenians to stop fighting the Spartans and they seize the Parthenon and the Acropolis.

It's a very, very funny play. What I think you should also think about is guards. This is a treasury at the end of the day. This was where the money was. And of course, you've got this great gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos within 12 meters high, this statue. So there will be guards patrolling the outside of the building. Now, how these guards are dressed may well be

hoplites with their spear and shield, the heavy Greek infantrymen that is associated with classical Greek warfare right at the center of it. There's mention, of course, of Scythian archers, which were this police force at the time. I don't know if it would be Scythian archers guarding the treasury. But I think, yeah, you should imagine priests and priestesses in the vicinity because the Acropolis was still a very sacred, important area where sacrifices did happen. But also guards. I don't know much else about other people being able to mill about, but those are two types of people that you should think about when you're thinking about the 5th century Acropolis. And what do we know about what happens to the Parthenon

as the classical world begins to fade, I guess? Does the Parthenon retain its importance to Athens? Does it find another use for itself? It definitely still finds another use for itself because it becomes one of the defining buildings of classical Athens. It was the treasury. it's defined as a temple but it's also a treasury so it was all this money was held and votive offerings too are mentioned as being within the parthenon and what's quite interesting when it is in classical athens time

when athens is at its height when that delian league has been transformed into the athenian empire that big procession that happens every four years the allies that people in the the league the empire really they're forced to attend the panathenaic procession um bring a suit of armor and i think an ox for sacrifice and you know they would march with this procession all the way up to the acropolis and then they would see they would see the great ancient entranceway to the acropolis known as the Popolaia, also you build with the funds of the treasury. They would see the Parthenon. And so they would almost be forced to see

what the Athenians have created, partly with their money. So, you know, at that time, first off, you know, it's a statement of Athenian power. I was just wondering how many of those were marching towards it going, oh, great, this is what we paid for. There are interesting cases where certain city-states try to leave this league

and the Athenians basically turn up and are like, are you really sure about that? With their big navy and everything. Would you like to reconsider? It becomes an empire. As time goes on, the Athenian Empire comes crumbling down at the end of a war called the Peloponnesian War. This height of Athens as an imperial power over the

next century fades but the athenians they they're very proud of their history and for instance you get to see by the time of alexander the great when athens is just one should we say it's it's a medium power by this time it no longer has the great empire that it once is but it still harkens back to that time when it was like great leader of what is now the civilized Greek world. And so a few of them don't like being under Macedonian leadership with Alexander the Great and his successors. And so there are times when they try to break free. They don't work. And there's quite a big retribution, which happens to the Athenians.

My mind goes to the Lamian War, which happens after Alexander the Great. But the Parthenon is still there. The Parthenon is still this shining beacon, this beautiful temple. And you see warlords in that Hellenistic period, that rise following the death of Alexander the Great and fight over his empire.

Warlords fight over Athens and the Acropolis. And one particular warlord is a man called Demetrius, Demetrius the Besieger. And he at first is welcomed into Athens. You know, he's got this big army and he is very fond of Athens. So the thing is, initially they have a good thought towards him.

But then after a bit of time, Demetrius, he establishes his house, his residency in the sacred Parthenon. And Demetrius is known as a bit of a playboy. He's a lot of courtesans, prostitutes who live with him. But then over time, the Parthenon is kind of robbed of the gold of the statue of Athena Polyas. There's like civil wars of Athens. Then the Romans come a bit later. Sulla, there's a great sack of Athens. And I think a lot of the treasures of Athens are sacked then,

brought to Rome, taken away from the acropolis including from the parthenon you then get a massive sack of athens in the third century by a germanic people called the heruli which is probably when the parthenon has a there's a massive fire of the parthenon and the statue is destroyed so that's when the statue of athena parthenos is gone and then you get a bit later, the emergence of Christianity. So Christianity becomes the state religion, Theodosius, at the end of the fourth century. And around that time, you see a lot of, I've got that kind of quotation marks, pagan Greek religion, Roman religion buildings, buildings associated with deities, either destroyed, or if they're fortunate, they are transformed into churches. And some of the best preserved buildings we have from antiquity are those which continue to be used because they're transformed into churches. A great example in Rome is the Pantheon. The Pantheon in Rome, a striking, striking building. And the Parthenon is another example.

It's conversed into the Church of the Virgin Mary. So there you go, one virgin divine figure to another virgin divine figure, from Athena to Mary. There is some consequences for this in the fact that many of the mythological scenes on the Parthenon that we've mentioned earlier are defaced because it doesn't suit with Christian beliefs. I think some of them, however, aren't. I think one of the pediments is interfaced. I believe it is the Athena versus Poseidon contest, but I might be wrong on that one. And it remains a church for several centuries until Athens is conquered by the Ottoman Turks and it goes from church into a mosque.

So it then becomes a mosque for a few centuries until you get to the 17th century and a siege of Athens by the Venetians. I think it's 1687, September 1687, when the Venetians, they're attacking Athens and they're bombarding Athens. I think it's by ship. And the Ottomans store their gunpowder in the Parthenon, thinking that the Venetians wouldn't strike it. They do.

And the gunpowder store explodes and a lot of the Parthenon is exploded. And so, yeah, you get parts of the Parthenon falling off. Some parts of that are then taken by Lord Elgin. And that's why some of the Parthenon marbles, also sometimes known as the Elgin marbles, have ended up controversially at the British Museum today. We must mention that.

Since then, it's a place that lots of people go and visit. Grand Tour, famous figures. I think Byron goes and visits the Acropolis. Many young gents who want to go and see the classical architecture, they go and visit the Parthenon. It's a must-see on their list of places to go. There are attempts of reconstructing it as well. And I think the most recent reconstructing and kind of repairing of parts of the Parthenon is ongoing to the present day.

So the Parthenon is a story that is very much part of ancient Greek history today. It's a shining monument of it. And it's one that's never really very far away from the newspapers because of controversies. But I very much glossed over the whole legacy. I've kind of talked about some of the big events. The legacy of the parthenon is absolutely a podcast episode in its own right yeah i mean it's incredible to think it's a what two and a half thousand year old building but it's still alive today you know it still has a role it's still the center of lots of study and and rebuilding and and everything else it's been a focus for Athens' religious life

and its social life. And it still is today. You know, people go to Athens to visit the Parthenon, to be connected to that two and a half thousand years of history there. Yeah, absolutely. And I think one thing that I find really interesting, and I read about this recently,

is I went to university at the University of Edinburgh and there's a hill in Edinburgh called Carlton Hill. And you'll notice on Carlton Hill that there's like the start of what looks like a parthenon like temple an ancient greek temple and reading up a bit on this this was a to commemorate the battle of waterloo in edinburgh initially there is constructed what they wanted to build their own parthenon in edinburgh but it was never finished so you see kind of unfinished beginnings of a parthenon in ed today on Carlton Hill. And of course, then there is the completely reconstructed Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee, with also the great gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos within, although they didn't put that more than a thousand

kilograms worth of gold or 40 talents worth of gold on the statue as there was in the original. kilograms worth of gold or 40 talents worth of gold on the statue as there was in the original so yes there are certain reconstructions so yeah you know the legacy of the Parthenon is another story and there are many better people to talk through it than I am center of religious life well the Acropolis religiously important uh statement of power for when Athens was an imperial power a legacy of classical Athens ofens of an athens at its height a legacy of pericles and architecturally and artistically one of the most beautifully designed and carefully designed i either mentioned those kind of little optical illusion architectural details and the artistic continuous freeze the met, the metopes, the pediments, all that sculpture is beautiful down to the present day.

All of these things result in its legacy enduring to the present day, as sometimes cheesily said, as an eighth wonder of the world. But I don't like giving numbers to the things. It is a wonder of the world. Yeah, fascinating. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Tristan, to talk us through the Parthenon and its history, and also to give us a glimpse of that pantheon of gods as well, to try and place some of them in my mind, because not my area of expertise at all.

But I've thoroughly enjoyed heading back to ancient Greece to find out more about the Parthenon, its building and its function and its role. It's been absolutely incredible. Where can people go to find out even more from the ancients podcast oh well you can search the ancients podcast on spotify or apple podcast wherever you get your podcasts from you know we cover everything from the origins of life on earth to the to the fall of rome so yeah got a big time period to focus on makes medieval period look very small i must admit but we like a challenge on the ancients release two episodes a week and we've done one on the path non in the past with maven mccue it was great and it's been a pleasure to revisit it today yeah no it's been wonderful thank you very much for joining us well there you go there was myself giving an overview of that wonder of the ancient world that is the path andon for our sister history hit podcast Echoes of History. If you have enjoyed this episode then go and check out Echoes of

History with Matt and the team where they explore various peoples, locations, buildings that feature in the Assassin's Creed video game franchise. So definitely also go and check that out too. video game franchise so definitely also go and check that out too thank you for listening to this episode of the ancients please follow this show on spotify or wherever you get your podcasts it really helps us and you'll be doing us a big favor and don't forget you can also listen to us and all of history hits podcasts ad free and watch hundreds of TV documentaries when you subscribe at historyhit.com slash subscribe. And as a special gift, you can also get 50% off your first three months when you use code ANCIENTS at checkout. That's enough from me and I will see you in the next episode.